Nomadland--A Review

 

Director Cloe Zhao shows us our beautiful country through a traveler’s lens and asks us to see life a little differently. Some critics think Nomadland is a mild rebuke to materialism. Others, a tribute of sorts to nomads that live off the grid and travel across the country taking odd jobs and sleeping in their cars. Everyone seems to like it though and I have to agree. Francis McDormand (Fern) plays a widow looking to belong and connect without the stability of a house and career.

The film begins with Fern packing her van for a stint at Amazon as a seasonal worker. Her belongings are in a storage unit. Her company town in Nevada shut down after the gypsum plant closed. Her husband died as well leaving her without either a home or companionship. She finds both as she travels across the country taking odd jobs with fellow travelers and other people cast adrift.

There is a cyclical aspect to this story. From the temporary jobs to the familiar faces and locations they drift in and out like the tide. We see the pull between the stable life of Fern’s sister and the fluid life of campgrounds and parking lots. Dave (David Strathairn) is a fellow traveler who clearly likes her and wants her to settle down with him. But she isn’t sure how she feels about him.

If there is any criticism it has to be that Nomadland romanticizes just a bit, the idea of pitching it all for an 80’s Econoline panel van and making it into a camper. It doesn’t make the life look easy but it doesn’t express the dangers of being alone and vulnerable. For most people sleeping in your car is a last resort even if some make a life out of it. But the movie is too subtle to encourage such a dramatic change in behavior. It doesn't really take a side. It just shows you the characters as they are.  

Fern runs out of money for van repairs and sheepishly tells the mechanic that it is her home when he suggests she junk it and get a car. Her sister lends her money to replace the engine. She visits for a short time and we find out that Fern left home long before she married.

Maybe this transient spirit is in her blood after all?  

 It’s beautifully shot too, lots of sunsets and landscapes that show the grandeur of America’s West. I could tell right away that most of the cast are real life nomads or just non-professional actors. They’re just too perfect in their natural habitat and the movie doesn’t attempt to clean them up either. The Bob Wells character is a real life promoter of camper life. He has YouTube videos on cheap RV living. Linda May is another friend that Fern meets at Camperforce, which is a program by Amazon to employ strictly van and camper dwellers during the holidays.   

The message that comes for me in the film is how people adapt to grief. The loss of a loved one is (I’m told) almost too painful to bear and it makes life’s other problems, mortgage/bills seem unimportant. So much so, that life away from it all can sound appealing-if not literally than at least emotionally. Grief isn’t always about losing a loved one, it can be about sadness over a disease or the end of a promising future due to bankruptcy. Anything that disrupts can be grief inducing. Nomadland shows the loneliness of grief through McDormand’s superb acting, but manages to be hopeful about friendship and support.  

I didn’t feel like this movie was heavy handed in any way. It didn’t force blame on any one system that created an impossible situation for broke and homeless retirees. It deals gently with its characters, they are neither sages nor dopes.    

Everyone has a different takeaway about what the movie is trying to say.

 If you hate banks and capitalism you’ll find the exchange where Fern criticizes a banker forcing people into mortgages they can’t pay just perfect. But her views reflect her lived experience more than anything. She just came from a town that literally closed. It’s clear about one thing, people have a myriad of reasons for living this way. Some are dying and hope to see the great big country before they go. Some, like Fern and Bob, deal with grief by being alone and making friends along the way.

Others like the Camperforce employees too old to buy a home, make the best of it without pensions or 401Ks or savings accounts. This is the forgotten man aspect of the movie, the ones who lost jobs and homes during the great recession. Whatever the takeaway, it’s a story about nomad living without a lot of explanation. 

Chloe Zhao presents a straightforward picture of the life in all its colors.